Legal Examiner Voices

Head on collisions with a semi generally don’t turn out very well. While I cannot cite statistics, I would presume that most car drivers who collide, head on, with 18 wheelers, end up dead. Surprisingly, in this case, while there were serious injuries, there were no fatalities. In this instance a semi and Ford pickup tangled in Idaho.

The Ford pickup was seen to virtually slide through the median on the Interstate; crossing over into the oncoming traffic’s lane. This is when the semi-truck traveling in the opposite direction slammed into the truck. From the accident reports it appears the Ford pickup driver lost control of his truck, smacked into the median, flipped over it due to the force of hitting it, and landed in the left lane on the eastbound side of the highway. The tractor trailer smashed into the truck; pushing it accordion style back into the median.

Responding EMS crews took both of the Ford’s passengers to the hospital. The driver was in serious condition, the passenger fared well enough to be treated and released with minor injuries. The semi driver came out of the incident unscathed. The road was shut down for several hours to clean up the pieces of truck scattered across the highway and for the police to start an accident investigation.

According to the accident report filed by the State police, speed and slick driving conditions were definitely factors in this accident. What other factors were there? Only time will tell, but other potential issues that often come into play when a car goes inexplicably out of control are cell phone use, texting, not accounting for road conditions, driving under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, or, just pain speeding. All of these are dangerous on the highway; all can be deadly when encountering an 18 wheeler.

The extent of the injuries are unknown at this time; they are described as "serious". Even with clear liability, litigation involving serious injuries is usually contentious and lengthy. Victims often wait months or years for a reasonable resolution. Disability and income loss will often put a litigant in financial distress. In the old days, the only way out was to resolve your case, too early and for too little. Today, people who find themselves in this type of situation might want to reseach lawsuit funding. In my 33 year legal and legal funding career, I have found this to be a valuable service to bridge the gap from initial offer to final settlement. Lawsuit funding provides needed financial assistance, immediately, to pay important bills, medical expenses and medications, make up for lost wages and resolve household expenses, without having to settle your case too early for too little.

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